This website uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some of these cookies are used for visitor analysis, others are essential to making our site function properly and improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Click Accept to consent and dismiss this message or Deny to leave this website. Read our Privacy Statement for more.

This Q&A is part of an ongoing CASSS series where we invite members to meet other members of the CASSS Community.

This time, we turn our Member Spotlight on Carmilia Jiménez Ramírez, a CASSS Associate Director and member of the CMC Latin America and North America Organizing Committees. She is currently at Gilead Sciences in California.

Q. How long have you been with your current organization an/or position?A. I have been working at Gilead Sciences, Inc. Oceanside, CA since February, 2015 as lead for Method Transfers, Validations and CMC Submissions for Biologics Analytical Operations.

Q. What was your motivation to volunteer with CASSS?
A. Initially, I volunteered as an organizing committee member after attending the first CMC Strategy Forum Latin America in Brazil, 2014. Being a native Latin American, this forum proved very eye-opening as to all the work that still needs to be done in order to ensure accessibility to new modalities of medical treatment in underdeveloped countries. I knew then I wanted to be involved in this type of endeavor. I have always been interested in acquiring more expertise in regulatory sciences and keeping ahead of new regulatory expectations for process development and manufacturing. At the same time, I wanted to gain some relevant experience organizing scientific content forums. As an added bonus, there are countless networking opportunities, for both personal and professional development while volunteering with CASSS.

Q. Where did you grow up?
A. I grew up in the township of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico in a small beachfront community located about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico.

Q. What do you do to relax? Do you have any hobbies?
A. Cooking provides a great way for me to relax and feel like I am accomplishing a good deed. I team up with my husband to do this. My dishes are mostly traditional Puerto Rican, Eastern Caribbean and Spanish. My husband is an expert at grilling, barbecuing and smoking meats, and preparing Southern and Cajun dishes. Typically, we cook homemade meals 5 or 6 times a week. We usually have friends and neighbors over to share. Other hobbies include paddle-boarding, camping and hiking.

Q. Do you speak any languages besides English?A. My native language is Spanish and I have basic understanding of Portuguese.

Q. Do you have any children? Pets?
A. I have a wonderful 16 year old daughter, who is currently a Junior in high school, and I have a 6 year old cat we adopted after being rescued from the streets in Puerto Rico.

Q. What's you favorite type of music?
A. I love classic rock and heavy metal as pick me ups and to keep me in a general good mood. To focus, I usually listen to pop music from the 1920s or baroque music. To party, I am partial to salsa, cumbia and hip-hop.

Q. What was the last movie you saw in the theater or book you read and loved?
A. The last movie I saw at the movie theater was Marvel's "Black Panther." The last book I read and loved was "Sleeping Beauties" co-authored by Stephen King and his son, Owen King.

Q. What famous person do you admire and why?
A. I have great admiration for US Associate Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor. Her life story as published in her autobiography is well in alignment with the way she has acted throughout her life. While she had the privilege of intellectual acuity, there were other personal traits that really influenced her achievements. Ms. Sotomayor's tenacity, persistence, work ethic and search for self-improvement were her weapons of choice to reach professional and personal success.

Q. What would people be surprised to know about you?
A. There was a time when I was in high school that I considered pursuing a career as a singer.